Day
44 – 6-24-15 Wednesday After breakfast we began exploring the
Haines area. The diesel fuel at the local Tesoro is $4.049 which is
$.50 more than what we paid in Tok but this is a very remote town. We
drove through town past the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry Terminal and
along side a huge body of water named Portage Cove all the way to the
end of the road where the Chilkoot Lake and Campground is. A very
nice scenic drive with mountains all around. Near the end of the road
near Chilkoot Lake the water was rushing over huge rocks. There were
several houses resting on the side of the mountain that had great
views out over the water and the mountains on the other side. We
stood and watched a kayaking guide show some customers how to get in
a kayak and how to paddle, etc. The lake looked like it would be a
perfect place to kayak. Lots of open calm water protected on all
sides by mountains. And no Lena is still not ready to get in a kayak
even though I told her how much fun it would be. We rode through the
campground and headed back up the road and stopped to watch two men
fly fishing in the cove. One caught a small fish while we watched. We
stopped at the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry to get a price and
availability of taking the motor home and Jeep on the ferry from
Haines to Skagway, rather than backtracking up the Haines Highway to
the Alaska Highway. We were surprised it was only $225 for both
vehicles. The trip is only 1 hour and it would save us over 200 miles
of driving on roads we have already traveled and we know about 5
miles of it will be bumpy gravel. We could board either Monday or
Thursday of next week. We are paid up here at the campground until
Monday and we are expecting two packages of parts for the motor home
to be delivered here to the post office. One package is the part to
fix the slide so I won't need to use my manual jumper wires to run it
in and out. We will wait a couple of days before we decide if we will
take the ferry or not.
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| Chilkat Lake |
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| Fireweed |
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| Water run from Chilkat Lake to Portage Cove |
We
drove back to Haines and stopped at Chilkat Restaurant and Bakery to
try their pastries and Latte. Let's just say we are still looking for
a good Latte in Alaska and a good bakery in Haines. Then we walked
around the main business district in town, walked by the Hammer
Museum where they have almost 2000 hammers on display, We watched a
couple of artist work on painting a Totem Pole and then walked down
to the small boat harbor and watched two Bald Eagles up in a tall
Spruce tree. There was Holland America cruise ship in town and
several passengers and some of the crew was walking around town. We
talked to three of them about the ship. The lady from Hawaii said it
was a nice ship, crew and good food but there just were not many
activities on board. From there we drove out past the historic Fort
Seward area. There was an US Army installation here many years ago.
Now the buildings are mostly private residences. We drove on to
Chilkat State Park but did not go into the park because the road was
a series of large gravel potholes. There was a sign at the entrance
that the road was not maintained. Why have a state park and not
maintain the road to get to it. On the way back to town we stopped at
the Haines Packing Company. This is a seafood processing facility
that was built in 1917 and has been purchased and revitalized and is
back in business. They were processing crabs today. We could watch
through the windows as the young men were processing the crabs. One
had a large meat cleaver and was cutting the crabs in half and the
other men were cleaning the “stuff” out and throwing them in a
large container. If the guy with the cleaver was to make a bad swing
with the cleaver he would be loosing some fingers because he had to
slam the clever down to cut through the crab shell and all the meat.
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| Crabs |
We
drove back into town and went to the Bear-Rittos Eatery & Bakery
for a late lunch. Then it was time to stop at the IGA for some
groceries. It was not a large IGA but it was well stocked. From there
we returned to the campground to relax for awhile.
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| Bear-Rittos Eatery & Bear Den Gift Shop |
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| 100 year old Apple Tree |
One
of the people from the campground came around with a 6 pack of
bottled water and a notice from the city water department that the
last water sample taken had a problem and that any water consumed
should be boiled for 2 minutes. We hope this don't last long. I
normally keep the on board water tank about a third to half full but
we had used most of it before we got here during the 3 nights we
camped without hookups and I had not replaced it.
About
8PM we drove down the road by Portage Cove and stopped near the fish
weir to see if any bears were out but didn't see any.
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